


Hard Light

by Buttons15



Series: Symmbra [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-08 16:50:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8852734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buttons15/pseuds/Buttons15
Summary: In which Sombra chases after a lead and ends up meeting a rather peculiar Vishkar architect.





	1. Chapter 1

It was Sombra herself who arranged their first meeting.

It all began with what happened in Brazil. She recognized information worth digging when she saw it, and that was the case when she first laid eyes on the news about the Rio fire. Press claimed it to be an accident, a gas explosion that began on Calado’s headquarters and quickly spread over to the nearby slums, leaving thousands homeless. _Fortunately,_ Vishkar so happened to be around, ready to step in for the good of the poor and give them fresh new houses.

Sombra knew better. She was very much familiar with corporations and how they worked. It took her three seconds to find out Calado and Vishkar had been competing over contracts. It took her another five to learn that the company’s offer to rebuild the slums into popular housing spaces did not come out of the goodness of their hearts.

She flicked her wrist and projections spun in the air around her. The hacker’s body modifications allowed her a constant interface with the network, so much that the projections had become an extension of her body and the browsing had become an extension of her mind. She skimmed over three, four, five documents at once.

Vishkar’s history was not a good one – no surprises there. Its projects in hard light were famous, truly wonders of technology, yet it all came with a bitter price. Control, oppression and exploitation of slavelike labor were the rule whenever the corporation was involved. She was familiar with the procedure, back in Dorado. Different companies, same story.

The Mexican closed her hand into a fist, shutting down the projections which surrounded her. She’d seen enough. She knew, however, that it was still too soon to lash out. Sombra was a patient woman, and knowing when to strike was just as important as knowing how to do it. For now, she’d wait. She’d let Vishkar rebuild what they destroyed. Then, she’d act. 

She’d done it before – a few leaked documents here, a prototype weapon dropped into the hands of the people there, a couple public disgraces on the CEOs and bam, the corporation would be out faster than she could say _hasta la vista._ Yes, she’d hold her ground until then…but that didn’t mean she had to stay idle meanwhile.

She clapped twice and the holographic screens reappeared.

_Time to have some fun._

While the big fish would be left alone for the moment, Sombra knew a company as complex as Vishkar was composed of layers upon layers of corruption and selfishness, of people waiting for an opportunity to benefit on someone else’s misery. She had plenty of smaller subjects involved on the fire to take down, plenty of appetizers to rip to shreds while she waited for the main course.

The Interface reacted to her excitement, and purple hexagons materialized beneath her fingers. She smiled, kicked her legs up the desk and turned her attention to Vishkar’s mainframe.

Hacking was, as always, absolutely delightful.

Each of her movements was followed by feedback from her implants. Zeroes and ones covered her vision; she understood them as easily as she understood the words on a child’s book. Lines and lines of code projected around her, strings turning red whenever she spotted a weakness. She fit them together like pieces of a puzzle, knowing exactly where to push and where to break.

 For every firewall taken down, a satisfying jolt would run from the base of her neck to the tip of her fingers. The opposite was also true, of course. A failed attempt hurt more than just her pride, it was physically painful. It made the entire process twice as thrilling. She licked her lips.

Getting into the files she needed was a walk in the park; their defense system consisted, as with most companies of their stance, of a semi-sentient AI responsible for constantly changing the security protocols. It was no match for Sombra’s human-and-digital mixed interface, and she took it down without breaking a sweat.

The information she got only confirmed what she’d expected: the fire had been an intentional attack, meant to pave the way for Vishkar’s invasion of Rio. She skimmed over the details: how many tons of dynamite, where they had been planted, the number of expected dead versus the actual result –

She paused at that last bit. They were working with a rather wide margin of human life.

_Repulsive._

A dozen documents unfolded under her vision. Sombra looked for names, and she found them. The order had ultimately been given by Sanjay Korpal, a high-ranked “ _negotiator_ ”. She blacklisted his name and kept on reading that report, until she came upon someone else: the lead architect of the reconstruction project, someone who went by ‘Symmetra’.

Information on her was highly contradictory, and it gave her pause. She flicked her index finger in a ‘come forward’ gesture and the projection zoomed in, the others fading into a blur.

_“Operative Symmetra was responsible for the infiltration of the Calado building. Upon finding no information that could be of use, Official S.K. proceeded with the backup plan.”_

She highlighted that string of text by tapping on one of her virtual hexagons.

_“…bear in mind that despite her crucial participation, Operative Symmetra must not be informed about the nature of the explosion…”_

She picked that bit apart as well, and the Interface immediately put them side-by-side for comparison. She bit her bottom lip, thoughtful. It was the kind of data that did not make sense together.

Sombra closed her eyes.

The projections remained, of course – they were wired directly into her brain. Still, she found that removing the background of her messy bedroom helped her think. She focused her trail of thought so that she could interact directly with the system. It had been tricky at first; her implants read the commands from the area of her cortex responsible for language, and for a long time, she had to imagine herself saying what she wanted it to do. But both she and her tech were highly adaptable, and practice had indeed made it perfect.

_> Query: Operative Symmetra._

_> …._

_> ….[data found]_

And there she had it:  a name and a picture. She also had everything else she could possibly want to know, but those two would suffice for what she had in mind.

Sombra was not an impulsive woman. She planned ahead, and she planned well. Those who deserved it would feel the sharp end of her vindictive fury, but sometimes she had to check out what exactly she was dealing with, by herself.

She opened her eyes. Around the room, her digital footprints were displayed as purple wisps of smoke. She dispelled them with a movement of her hand, and then plucked a particularly crude and well-guarded bit of data. It made noise when it was ripped from the system, ringing the alarm that would call the attention of the security AI.

The implants on her hands grew warm enough to be unpleasant. A frame appeared over her vision and it blinked red.

“I know, I know,” she muttered when the alarm grew more urgent.

The AI materialized itself right in front of her:  a huge three-headed digital dragon, all claws and teeth, so close she could smell its foul breath. The hacker rolled her eyes.

The Interface would often personify threats into monsters so that she could better seize up the danger. Sombra appreciated it; it gave her something solid to serve as an anchor in an abstract world of software and immaterial enemies. Yet sometimes it could be just _so damn cheesy_.

“Boop,” she said, poking at the air.

And then she was offline.

 

* * *

 

Satya Vaswani was _weird._

There was no better way to put it. There was something off about her, as if she was never fully _there_. It sounded somewhat hypocritical of Sombra to think that, considering she was the one whose brain was plugged into the web, but Satya passed her a persistent sense of aloofness that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. She was stiff, all the time. Her body language was off. And she hardly ever made eye contact, either.

They stopped at the doors of True Steel, Inc, where they would break in to find and destroy compromising information on Vishkar. Sombra had stolen and planted that information, of course. She had also announced herself as the one person with knowledge to break into the company’s mainframe. _Incidentally,_ Satya was the only operative available to tackle the mission – all the others were either busy or had been relocated to solve one problem or another.

The two hadn’t exchanged a single word beyond introductions. Now, with the objective ahead of her, Sombra crossed her arms over her chest and struck up conversation.

“So…” she began. “Vishkar, huh?”

Symmetra turned and stared at her in silence for so long, the hacker wondered whether she had something on her teeth.

“…how do you like working for them?” the Mexican eventually asked. “I’m… uh…considering employment.”

_Seems legit, Sombra._

She resisted an urge to slap herself on the forehead. How the other managed to simultaneously stare at her and avoid her eyes was a mystery.

“I do not believe they would hire someone with such shady history.”

The hacker frowned. Had that been an insult? The words were offensive but the tone in which Satya had said them did not convey arrogance or spite. She spoke it as if it was a statement of fact: ‘the sky is blue, night comes after day, Vishkar wouldn’t hire you.’

_Did she actually believe I’m looking for a job –_

“We should proceed with the mission.”

“…right.”

 She typed on her invisible keyboard. A couple seconds passed, then the doors whirred into life, opening just enough to let the two sneak in.  The warehouse was empty, as expected, and it was a smooth walk to the terminal. She hacked the elevator that would lead them to the offices and the two went up in silence. When the doors opened, however, she knew she was in trouble.

Two men walked the corridor in their direction, talking loudly. Sombra could smell the alcohol on their breaths from meters away. She cursed. It was past eleven and no one was supposed to be there, but she couldn’t have accounted for a couple idiot workers who had decided to stay in for a beer. She pulled her gun from her belt. The Interface sensed her agitation and clicked into life, words blinking over her vision.

_> Initializing Combat Augmentation…_

_> Detecting Targets…_

_> Detected._

_> Threat level estimation: Low._

_> Nonlethal approach viable._

The men’s bodies glowed vivid red. Over their heads floated their distance to her, in meters.  Her trajectory was calculated in a split second and she readied herself to move, knowing that her implants would correct her movements if necessary. She ducked to the side, pulling the other by the arm, and they went out of the men’s field of vision. She could still see them via infrared and so she waited for the precise moment to jump them.

Before she could act, however, a red arrow flashed, pointing to her left, and she turned to see Symmetra pull out a weapon of her own.

_Shit –_

She didn’t bother trying to stop the architect, because she knew they would be seen and there would be no point in holding Symmetra back only so she could shoot them herself. Instead, she watched with mild horror as the woman released a large ball of light. The men didn’t stand a chance, and as soon as they were hit by the projectile, they fell to the ground, whimpering.

_> Target neutralized._

_> Estimated regaining of consciousness in six minutes._

_Wait what_

“We should move quickly, before they wake,” Satya stated, already three steps ahead.

“You didn’t kill them,” Sombra pointed out. “I thought you would.”

The other frowned. “There was no need. I don’t kill if I don’t have to.”

_But somehow blowing up a building and setting a slum on fire is okay?_

Just like with the information obtained from hacking, Symmetra’s behavior didn’t fit, and it irked her that by meeting with the woman, she seemed to end up with more questions than answers.

They reached the office and Sombra pretended to hack. There was no need – she’d left the stolen packages of data where she could quickly get to them. Annoyed, she grabbed the file and disconnected. The two men were an obstacle in her plan of getting to know the architect, and now she had to rush to get out of the building. The Interface was kind enough to let a countdown on the corner of her vision. With four minutes left, she figured there was enough time for one final test.

“I’ve got the files,” she voiced.

“Excellent. Delete them and we can go.”

“You’re not curious to take a peek? It must be some serious stuff, if Vishkar has us going all the way here to get rid of it.”

Satya tilted her head, as if the possibility had never crossed her mind. “There is no need for curiosity. Sanjay has informed me of the contents.”

 “He did?”

The architect nodded. “Forgeries and lies, meant to stain the reputation of the people who are making the world a better place.”

She opened her mouth. Closed it. She had the entire thesaurus available with the blink of an eye, and she was still speechless.

_She can’t seriously believe that._

The Interface beeped to alert her she was running out of time. She didn’t have to, but she still turned on the monitor in the room, only to make an exaggerated show out of deleting the files.

“Done and done,” she said, making a big ugly “FILE DELETED” pop on the screen. “I didn’t _take any copies_ , so that should be the end of this issue.”

“Perfect. Let us head out.”

_…seriously?_

“No _copies_ ,” she repeated, coating her voice with so much sarcasm she could almost taste it. “None at all.”

“As instructed,” Symmetra replied. “Is there anything else or may we leave?”

“…no, nothing else. Let us be out.”

Satya nodded and led the way. Sombra followed, bewildered.

 _La puta madre,_ she thought as they took the elevator down. _She does seriously believe that._


	2. Chapter 2

School history. Medical records. The information Sombra had ignored before, she now went through eagerly. She looked for an explanation to what she’d seen, because it made absolutely no sense. No one could be that clueless. Her stellar records both at school and later at Vishkar Academy showed she was brilliant. An absolute genius at her field. Born from a poor family but selected by the company for her exceptional intellect and skill in hard light manipulation.

And then something caught her eye: Valswani had been diagnosed at an early age in the autism spectrum.

_Jackpot._

The Mexican closed her eyes.

_> Query: Autism._

About a billion and one pages popped up, and she picked the first five results to take a look. The information was deeply unsatisfactory, either too dumbed down to be useful or too buried in jargon to be comprehensible. As always, she realized the good stuff would be under gigabytes of trash. She opened her eyes, pushed her chair closer to her computer and clicked her tongue absently.

Information was her business and she was not the best in the field for nothing. Half her job was stealing the right data. The other, equally important half, was knowing whom to talk to.  As always, she knew just the person. Since her modifications, Sombra used less and less of hardware, and her keyboard and mouse would actually collect dust if she didn’t keep them clean. But for some things, they were still the best way to go.

She booted up _League of Legends._ Her contact was offline. Sighing, she realized she’d have to use the Interface after all.

Hacking into Overwatch servers was as quick as hacking into anything else. Athena, their AI, was not semi but fully sentient, which could have proven a challenge hadn’t Reyes delivered a backdoor directly into Winston’s lab. She navigated the network until she found the computer she wanted.

The hacker was kind enough to check what the other was doing before initiating contact. The browser had twenty three tabs open in different articles from _Pubmed._ She saw a document of sixty-two pages in progress, but no words had been typed for the last dozen minutes. The session time read over nine hours.

Sombra decided the doctor could use a break. She saved the document and backed it up on the Overwatch cloud, because she knew the other was often forgetful and computers were flimsy things. And then she clicked on the _League of Legends_ icon. She peeked into the camera feed from the room just enough that she could see the blonde’s gasp of surprise.

The Mexican clicked the chat window open and typed in her greetings while the game searched for a match.

_> hola, zig_

There was a moment of stillness, followed by the notification that the other was typing.

_< hola, sombra. hoping you saved all the stuff you just closed._

She grinned.

_> saved and backed it up, si señora._

_< danke schon. guess I could use the break._

The game notified that a match was found. Sombra waited for the others to choose their heroes first, because she played any position anyway.

_> wondering if you could help me out with something. need some medical info. the good stuff. not that bullshit I get from google._

_< shoot._

Someone picked Amumu. She knew Angela liked to pick him, so she booted the player out of the match with a flick of her ankle.

_> autism. give me an overview._

Angela selected her favorite mummy and resumed typing. Sombra picked Morgana. She hit the servers with a basic DDoS to slow down the beginning of the match so that the doctor could finish writing.

_< two big criteria for diagnosis: persistent social deficit and restricted pattern of interests. usually comes together with intellectual deficiency. a socioemotional condition at its core. how old is the kid?_

_> twenty-eight and she’s a genius_

_< savant. that’s rare. adult, too. makes things different._

> _how so?_

The loading screen blinked out and the map was shown. Sombra had her hero follow Angela’s on the top lane.

_< it’s a development disorder, so we talk a lot about children. those who lack intellectual deficiency may lose the diagnosis when they grow. adults make up strategies to compensate , but they can be oblivious to complex social cues. if verbal language is fluent, body language can be awkward and desynchronized. help you any?_

_> sí. what else do you have?_

_< need more info on what you want._

It was hard, because the hacker was not exactly sure what she was looking for. She let herself be distracted by the game for a moment, processing the new knowledge in the back of her mind.

_> tell me what makes ‘em tick._

_< no. I’m not teaching you to how to bully someone with a disorder._

Sombra scoffed and shook her head, smirking. The firm morality was something she appreciated in Angela, because she found it so severely lacking in her field.

_> when did I ever bully someone?_

_< …_

_> don’t answer. don't mean to harm her. more like, wanna know if she’s being harmed._

The moment she typed it, she knew it was the truth. The way Symmetra believed that she was working for the greater good had bothered her deeply. She didn’t like seeing people exploited, and that ideal also applied to awkward Indian architects.

_< sombra… _

_> swear to god, zig. c'mon, you’ve known me for a while now. _

_< fine. trusting you. don’t let me down._

_> si señora._

They broke down the second tower on their lane and backed down, waiting for the next wave of minions to arrive.

_< if you’re dealing with a savant adult, then you’re looking at someone with a lot of social anxiety. they have a hard time noticing intuitive things like sarcasm or when someone is lying. and though they can talk  for hours about their interests, they have to make a huge effort to calculate things that are obvious to others, like when the other part is growing bored._

_> yup, sounds like her._

_< they suffer a lot from loneliness._

An enemy Camille met them on their path. Sombra and Angela obliterated them within seconds.

> _that so? thought they liked being alone. that's what I got from google anyhow._

_< they are human like you and I, sombra. but they need patience and sincerity in their relationships, more than most, and so more often than not, solitude hurts them less than trying to interact. people can be cruel._

She gritted her teeth. The mere thought of it was infuriating.

_ > pendejos. hard time making friends, then. what else?_

_< they can be very sensitive to sensory stimuli. loud noises, bright lights, strong colors and whatnot. _

_> gotcha. no technopop shows for that one._

_< gods, no. _

They were at the enemy base. The first inhibitor went down.

> _right. anything else?_

_< one more thing. ties up with that last one. they can be rigid with values and routine, ritualistic even.  when you’re so stimulated and everything is overwhelming, order becomes really important. they like having a schedule and keeping it. they like having things on proper places. _

_> like OCD?_

_< not quite, in strictly medical terms, though they can happen together. more like OCPD, but I see where you’re coming from. _

The victory screen flashed and Sombra sent the blonde kudos for good teamwork.

> _gracias, doctora._

_< no problem. keep me updated on that one._

_> will do. league again same time next week?_

_< deal._

 

* * *

 

The information she got from Angela made things fall into place like pieces of a puzzle. The awkward behavior and the complete oblivion to sarcasm made sense in context, and Sombra felt it was safe to assume that when it came down to the Rio incident, Satya was not in fact one of the people directly responsible for the fire.

 _However_.

However, something was still off.

 _Order. Rigidity._  

The last of Angela’s words played in her head repeatedly. Sombra bit her bottom lip in thought. She did not think Satya guilty, but she could not judge her innocent, either. Sure, some important data was being withheld from the woman. But they had gone together in a clearly illegal mission, and the other had seemed okay with it.

Corruption aside, discipline and order were core values in Vishkar. To which point Symmetra was willing to overlook the atrocities made by the corporation to ensure what she believed in, the hacker did not know. She had a feeling the company didn’t know, either, and that was the very reason the architect was kept in the dark about so much.

She could have dropped it right then, because her initial plan was to find the people responsible for the fire and punish them. Yet Sombra didn’t deal well with loose ends. And so she followed her gut and arranged for them to meet once more.

This time, she chose a place that would play into the Indian’s comfort zone. Angela’s predictions were on point, and Satya did indeed follow a regular pattern. She would leave her bedroom at precisely ten to eight. She would arrive at the cafeteria five minutes later. She would order a decaffeinated latte with two sugars, and she would sit on the table by the corner.

Sombra decided this was the most convenient moment to intercept the other, so she snuck into the corporation’s building, bought two lattes and sat on the corner table. Then, she broke down the coffee machine with a simple EMP. She watched Satya arrive and assess the situation, tension clear on her shoulders.

The architect turned to her usual table and frowned when she saw it wasn’t empty. The hacker waved.

“Hola, amiga,” she greeted. “I got you a latte. Decaff, with two sugars, how you like it.”

Satya stood still. Sombra could tell she was uncomfortable. She extended the cup of coffee and the other took it without speaking. After a couple seconds of awkward silence, the woman took her seat.

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

The Mexican shrugged. “Yeah, I get that a lot. Relax. I’m just looking into…that employment offer we talked about.”

“Oh.” The Indian took a sip from her coffee.

Sombra’s eyes twinkled. “Think you could put a good word for me with your bosses?”

“Yes.” A pause. “But you dress inappropriately. It distinctively lowers your odds of being hired.”

_She is too pure._

The hacker grinned and shook her head. “So. Vishkar, huh? Heard they are all about order.”

It wasn’t a question. Symmetra didn’t reply.

_Subtle, Sombra. Very subtle._

She wanted to facepalm at her cringeworthy conversation starter.  She was a master at dealing with people – tricking, hacking, stealing information, that was what she did best. But Satya seemed to throw her off her axis, because she had a feeling that any attempt to make the woman read between the lines would just make the two very confused.

_Ah, to hell with it._

“Do you believe in the values of your company? That stuff about discipline and order, I mean.”

“Of course.” Satya blinked. “The true enemy of humanity is disorder. Vishkar works against chaos, and by doing that, it makes the world a better place.”

 “Right.” The Mexican gulped down her coffee, hissing at the taste. How the other managed to take that every day was a mystery. “But you’ll stand for that whatever it takes? Even if it hurts people?”

“I don’t think I understand what you’re trying to get at.”

Sombra sighed. “Well, what we did the last time we met wasn’t precisely orderly… or legal.”

The architect tilted her head. “No one got gravely injured then. Those two men are fine.”

“Not in Rio, though. People died there.”

Symmetra flinched. “That was a terrible accident. What happened to the favela was unfortunate. Vishkar never meant for it to acquire that magnitude.”

“But they did mean for the Calado building to blow, yeah?”  she leaned forward. “With people inside and all. That’s fine, right? That’s within the margin of expected human loss.”

“No! I would have taken them out if I – there wasn’t a warning, Sanjay just – I don’t kill if I don’t have to, I don’t.”  she grew agitated. “You’re not supposed to know this. You’re not supposed to know any of this.”

_Not so innocent after all._

“But I do,” Sombra crossed her arms over her chest. “And my question remains. Do you stand for that?”

“I – we’re making a better world. Their lives will be better for it, and we’re serving the greater order.”

“Did they have a say in that? Because they didn’t seem very happy last I checked.”

Silence.

“I thought so.” The hacker clicked her tongue and stood. “You do condone it. The ends justify the means. I’ll leave you with some food for thought then,” she moved closer and lowered her tone. “If it turned out that accident was not so accidental after all…would you stand for that, too?”

Sombra translocated away before the other could think of an answer.

 

* * *

 

She thought about what to do for a long time. No good answer came to mind. ‘Nothing’ was, as always, a strong option. She could mind her own business for once in her life. Still, she hadn’t arrived where she was by doing nothing, and so after days of deep wondering, she finally arrived at a plan. It was a long shot, but worth a try anyway.

Sombra laid down on her bed and closed her eyes. She navigated the Interface to where she needed be, around security and deep into Overwatch servers. This time, she wanted a more personal interaction. Watching through the camera feeds, she waited until the doctor was alone. Then, she locked the door to the lab and hijacked the room’s holographic communication system.

A projection of herself materialized on the holotable, and she assumed control of it, seeing through its eyes in an intricate simulation. For a split second, she could see the polygons which made up the virtual version of laboratory and even the digital version of Angela. Then the vision was rendered with such perfection she was unable to distinguish it from reality.

The doctor had her back to the holo-Sombra, and was focusing intently on a something on her computer.

“Hola, mi ángel,” she greeted.

The blonde jumped a good three feet into the air. “ _Hija de la puta madre, Sombra!_ Couldn’t you have warned me you were going to call?!”

She burst out laughing. “See, this is why I like you. No ‘Sombra, how did you lock my door?’ No ‘Sombra, you can’t just hack into the facility’s communicators’. Just some classy angry Spanish.”

“ _Que mierda_ , Sombra,” Mercy muttered, though the hacker’s highly accurate reconstitution told her that the other was fighting a smile. “What kind of trouble are you about to drag me into?”

“I just miiiight have someone headed your way.”

Angela rolled her eyes and pushed her chair closer to the projection. “Your savant?”

“Sí. Though I’m grasping at straws with her. Chances are she’ll just refuse the invite.”

“Sombra, you can’t just hack into the organization’s recruitment system,” the blonde grinned.

“ _Pendeja._ ”

“ _Tu mamá,_ ” the doctor leaned back against her seat. “You want to tell me about her?”

Sombra tapped her chin. “She’s stubborn, very much so. And she can be a bit obstinate with her whole ‘order’ business.”

“Great. Just great.” Mercy muttered. “She’ll love the Shimada brothers. Maybe they can join forces and create a cult of Honor and Order.”

“No peace?” the hacker teased.

Angela squinted. “I have my own little club of Peace and Harmony with Zenyatta, thank you very much. What would you have me do about her?”

She hesitated. “I don’t know, just… she wants to help people, Zig, I can tell, even though she’s so strict with her values. What she believes in _can_ be used to do good… just not the way they’re doing where she is right now.”

“So you just want me to use her my way? The Overwatch way? Because that’s…”

“No!” Sombra thought about her words for a moment. “She can make her own decisions. She’s plenty capable. I just want you to be sincere. Don’t hold back information like _they_ do. Let her know the full extent of both the damage and the good she’s done. She can judge by herself. And, you know… be a friend. Be kind. Basically, just be you.”

The blonde exhaled, her lips pressed in a thin line. “Just so we’re clear, where exactly are you plucking her from?”

“Uhhm, like, a company. A big one. A megacorp.” She shot the other a sheepish look. “…Vishkar.”

Angela let out a stream of German words Sombra assumed were curses, though to be fair, she did assume _all_ German words were curses.

“We’re flying under the radar here, _amiga_. Having Vishkar on our backs would be…bad. Really bad.”

She bit her bottom lip, thoughtful. “If it’s money you need, I can work on a… anonymous donation _._ And I’ll keep them off your trail, just like I’ve been keeping the UN. They won’t know why she left.”

The doctor closed her eyes and stood still for a full five seconds. Then she sighed, and Sombra knew she had her answer.

“…Fine.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “But Sombra… I can’t guarantee that her skills won’t end up used for… unintended purposes.” Her tone was unusually bitter. “I couldn’t even stop my own research from being turned into a weapon.”

“I cannot hold you accountable for other’s actions, _amiga,_ ” she licked her lips. “All I ask is that you do not act in bad faith.”

“ _Ja klar._ If she does accept, I’ll be ready.”

“ _Muchas gracias_. Take care, Zig.” Sombra extended her holographic hand forward and poked Angela in the nose. Her fingers passed right through it. “Boop _._ ”

And with that, she disconnected.

Sombra creaked her fingers and sat straight up. She had a lot of work to do.

 

* * *

 

She collected the data on the Rio incident – all of it. And then she went after information on the other projects Symmetra had taken part in. Once she’d gathered all of that, she put it all in a neat, untraceable package and aimed it at Vaswani’s office.  The message was simple, and the option to ignore it was given. Ultimately, it would be Satya’s choice – both whether she wanted to know the truth and whether she wanted to stay regardless of it.

Sombra was good at careful planning, but not so much at idly waiting, so as soon as she’d sent the message, she placed the Interface on emergency only mode and went downstairs to tick off either Reyes or Amelie, whichever was closer. She would check her answer in the morning. She spotted Widowmaker on the couch, quietly flipping through a book.

_> Stealth augmentation initiated._

She tiptoed her way to where the other was, invisible and quiet, and then she grabbed the sniper by the shoulder. “Hola, araña!!”

_“Fille de pute!”_

_> Detected._

 

* * *

 

She met Satya again almost a year later. Work got in the way, though Sombra did not break her promise to keep Vishkar busy. She helped the locals kick them off Rio, and then she leaked their shady business with Lumérico. She made sure the company was too deep in shit to bother looking for a missing architect.

They were in Gibraltar when she finally got a break, post yet another Talon and Overwatch clash. There were, as per usual, no casualties, because Gabriel wouldn’t let them kill Jack or Ana, and Amelie wouldn’t let them kill Lena, and Sombra wouldn’t let them kill anyone, really. She liked her contacts alive and friendly. Why Talon still bothered to send the trio on missions against people they had clear emotional links with remained a mystery of inefficiency.

She waited for the architect on a table in the corner with a cup of decaff latte, two sugars. The other smiled when she saw her, which was nice for a change. Sombra wasn’t used to being greeted with smiles. She was used to being greeted with offenses to her mom.

“Hola, amiga. I got you a latte. Decaff, two sugars, just how you like it.”

“Our last conversation which began that way did not end well,” Satya pointed out.

“It didn’t,” Sombra agreed. “Let’s make this one better. To be fair, I’m surprised. I didn’t think you’d accept the job offer.”

Symmetra didn’t meet her gaze. She looked off the window and offered no words. Sombra was ready to start the random words of lameness that always seemed to strike her when she was around the architect, but Satya unexpectedly began speaking.

“It was not… an easy decision. The evidence you’ve presented me was compelling. I haven’t given up on Vishkar, or in what I believe in. I hadn’t realized… disorder extended much further than I had expected. I plan to go back, eventually, I just… think I can use a change in perspective.”

“Fair enough.” She took a sip of her soda. “How do you like Overwatch so far?”

The other’s expression eased, and she let out another smile. The second that day.

_Paint me charmed._

“It is very nice, if slightly chaotic. I get to help a lot. It’s…different from Vishkar. The people in need seem to appreciate my work here, even though it’s fundamentally the same as the one I used to do there. Isn’t it strange?”

“Mind boggling,” Sombra agreed with a smirk.

“Doctor Ziegler says it’s all about dialogue and negotiation. People don’t get angry when she proposes things, which is also strange, because Sanjay was a negotiator too and the poor in Rio hated him. Anyway, she helps me talk to the locals so they see the benefits of my ideas.” She halted. “She also helps me see the benefits of their ideas, which is...interesting.”

“A real piece of work, she is.”

“And then there’s Mei-Ling. She’s a scientist, too, an ecologist. We’ve been working together on technology that is eco-friendly and on sources of renewable energy. Every time we rebuild a place, we make it sustainable. It’s often very challenging.”

“I can’t think of anyone better suited to the task.”

Satya’s smile turned into a grin. “I also work a lot with Torbjorn. His workshop is too messy for my liking, but he knows much of mechanics. Helped me upgrade my turrets.”

_She’s unusually talkative today._

“Oh, and Doctor Ziegler gave me a dog!” Symmetra extended her left hand, where she carried her hardlight projector, and made a circling movement with her right. A hologram materialized, a 3D moving picture of Satya and an excited border collie.

“I really like her,” she thought for a moment. “The dog, I mean. Doctor Ziegler, too, I guess. And Mei-Ling. I like them all, even Lena. She’s very restless, which makes me uncomfortable, but she reminds me a bit of Collie and that’s a good thing. ”

“Collie?”

“The dog, that’s her name.”

Sombra couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. Satya tilted her head.

“Did I say something funny?”

“Yeah,” the hacker stiffed a giggle. “Most people don’t like being compared to dogs, even one as nice as… Collie the collie.”

“Oh.” The woman looked around the room. “I’m glad Lena didn’t hear, then.”

“She wouldn’t mind,” Sombra reassured.

“Do you know each other?”

“Mmhm, sort of. I helped design her chronal accelerator, but she doesn’t know that. And a friend of mine has taken a liking to her, though she’d never admit it.”

“Is your friend someone from Talon?”

Sombra hesitated. “Well… sort of…yes.” She cleared her throat. “Might not be a good idea to let others know you met me, by the way. Overwatch and I… are not usually on friendly terms.”

“That is… disconcerting. Particularly considering you are the one who got me here.” 

“It’s…complicated.” She sighed. “I have a bone to pick with some important members, and they reciprocate that.”  She paused. “You can tell Doctor Ziegler we met, if you want. She won’t be upset.”

Symmetra seemed to relax at that. “I don’t think you’re a bad person. I’ve seen what you did to Vishkar and Lumerico,” She said absently. “I appreciate it. Order needs truth to exist, and truth is what you deal. I think I might like you as well, Sombra.”

_Well fuck me_

Sombra felt heat on her face at the unexpected compliment, even though Satya didn’t seem aware it was one. ‘The sky is blue, Vishkar wouldn’t hire you, I like you.’ She wasn’t used to that blatant sincerity – she made a living out of fighting for that kind of information, damn it.

“I – Thank you, Satya.” She stammered. “I like you, too.” She felt her cheeks burn. “Maybe we should see each other more often. We could sneak out and catch a movie – that one featuring your teammate Song is on. Umm, if you want, of course.”

The other eyed her with a mean twinkle on her eyes. “Like a date? I think I’d like that.”

Sombra choked on her soda. It came out of her nose burning. She coughed.

_Well that escalated quickly_

“Y – yeah. I’d like that, too.”

 

* * *

 

**Bonus:**

Mercy [worried because Satya was late and Satya is _never_ late]: "Is everything all right?"

Symmetra [clueless]: "Yes. I met Sombra on the way and got distracted."

Mercy [completely unfazed by the break into a high security facility because  _Sombra_ ]: "Oh, how is she?"

Symmetra [feeling giddy]: "She's good. We have a date on friday."

Mercy: *spits coffee*

Symmetra [feeling mean]: "Just like you and Captain Amari."

Mercy: *falls off the chair*

* * *

 

**Bonus (2):**

Widowmaker [sees Sombra looking particularly sharp]: "Look who had a shower today."

Sombra [flustered]: _"Vete a la mierda!"_

Widowmaker [teasing]: "You have a date or what?"

Sombra [smug]: "Sí, actually. Unlike you, who still hasn't grown the balls to ask out that cute brit you've been hounding - "

Widowmaker: *throws pillow*

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so:
> 
> \- I'd like to credit Disteal and [ this ](http://disteal.tumblr.com/post/154335554605/commission-for-vestam-who-was-super-lovely-and) really awesome piece of art which heavily inspired me to write this, and the scene in which Sombra sends Symmetra the invite in particular;
> 
> \- Sombra and Mercy are league of legends buddies and no one will convince me otherwise;
> 
> \- No, seriously, I do believe the two get along, and that's mostly because they both use organizations as means to fulfill their own agendas. Mercy is never comfortable with how Overwatch is run, but she knows with them she can reach the most people. And Sombra just does whatever the shit she wants despite what Talon tells her.
> 
> \- Autistic Sym was a challenge, and I had to hit the books for that one. She has the social difficulties, yes, but she's also very bright and she can handle herself really well. I'd say she's actually oblivious of how her words will affect other people about half the times. The other half, she can predict the social outcome but just doesn't really give a fuck. And then there are those times in which she _can_ predict her behavior is inappropriate, but she does it anyway just for the kicks.
> 
> \- Symmetra is listed as someone with an ulterior motive and I hopefully managed to convey that. Her moving from Vishkar to Overwatch doesn't change that; quite the opposite. She, like Angela and Sombra, tends to see organizations as means to an end.
> 
> \- Sym is still plotting her new world order shit and her values will always keep pulling her towards Vishkar. She'd take it over if she could, and she knows with the help of Sombra, that might just be achievable. How much that played a role in her asking Sombra out is something I'd like to leave open for imagination.


End file.
